Hey there, i'm a new 3rd gen owner, (long time '84 Z-28 lover, new '82 Trans-am owner..)
anyway the car is:
1982 Trans-am
LG4
4 speed manual
had a 350, bought the car with the original motor put back in, so many things are screwed up..
Anyway, it was running very harsh, old owner told me to swap in another carb, gave me one from an 84 camaro, rebuilt it and put it on, and am now trying to get it running right.
So i'm setting the timing and adjusting the idle:

Question:
When trying to set the timing, i'm lining up the grove on the harmonic balancer (right?) with a notch on the block, which should be around 6 degrees BTDC... now there is a WATERPUMP in the way and I can't even see the crank except from the bottom (which is how I found the groove..) So, how on earth do I set the timing on this? Also, when using the timing light, when the car is backfiring and chugging (in a bad, stalling kinda way), even the TIMING LIGHT is missing... I think i've got a bad cap/rotor/wires/plugs, but besides that, how should I correctly set the timing?
(gasp, wow that was long.)

Thank you. -J

 

First of all, if there is any chance whatsoever of any component of the ignition being bad, you should replace that.

 

You've got a possibility of severely mismatched timing mark parts, which would put the mark out into the ozone as far as accuracy is concerned; but if you're lucky, the fixed side of it will be on the timing cover, almost dead center, you'll need to look down between the WP and the TC to see it.

 

Sorry, what was TC?
Well I looked behind the waterpump, (never thought of that.... well first car without distributorless ignition, so it's new to me...)
, and I THINK i'm looking at the balancer, as well as a few, "spikes" coming from the block, about 3... Just to clarify, do those refer to 10 before, 5 before, then TDC? or....
yea, I was planning on checking the resistance of the wires out of the car, then checking cap and rotor and probably replacing those with plugs just 'cuz I have no idea when they've been changed.
Thank you.

 

Your timing light gets connected to the battery and to the #1 firing cylinder.
You then shoot the strobing light down between the WP (water pump) and TC (timing chain cover).

Ideally, you'd have already climbed under the car or leaned down from the open hood and marked a line w/ white chalk on the mark on the harmonic balancer and the (timing marker) "spiky things coming from the block"... the EXACT mark that you want for your timing.

I don't know offhand what the degrees of timing would be for a 305, but a quick call to ANY local auto parts store would lock you right on (without the embarassment of asking publicly too).

A Chiltons and/or Haynes auto service manual for your year vehicle has the timing information AND will walk you right through this process.

Have a whirl and good luck.

 

ha! That's funny, I paid $40 for my chilton firebird manual (had to return the camaro one when I found out, unlike haynes, chilton has seperate camaro firebird manuals...), and still, under the body section it shows a teardown of a CAMARO noseclip.... they just replaced the cover of the camaro book... oh yea, and the timing degrees are shown in the book, but not how to set it, it did tell me to unplug the dist. from the computer, and then :
"align the timing marks and set the timing"
no, "how" to do it... oh well...
my main idea was: there are three teeth on the block, which would be the 6 degrees that I want? Should it be 4, 6, 8 ? and I want the middle one ideally?


Then on a similar but slightly different subject, since i'm doing this, i'm also setting the idle, I found (from Chilton), that to set the idle I want to unplug the solonoid (i'm guessing the only electrical plug on my '84 camaro's carb), which is on the passenger side of the carb, then have it at low idle, and adjust the screw on the drivers side (which pushes against the throttle lever).
however, what is the screw on the passenger side for? it's a phillips rather than flathead if that helps, almost on the choke solonoid itself?

Thank you

 

just finished screwing with it:
The moron who owned the car before me had the firing order all mixed up. (one time chilton came in handy.) instead of 1-8-3... or whatever, he had 1-6-.... So after checking the plugs and wires, then buying a new cap and rotor, and switching to what the book said, it was a hell of a lot easier to line up those timing marks, and set the idle. Thanks for all the ideas though..
oh yea, and I just lined it up with the 2nd tooth from the left....
whatever that was...

and I set the idle using the right screw, touching the throttle linkage, but what are the two on the left, one would be setting when the secondaries open, and one is for.... choke?
any more info on this would be greatly appreciated, thank you.